Carlos Sainz had high hopes of finishing in the podium places at his home race, but the Ferrari’s pace was too slow. A desperate Sainz pleaded with his race engineer to come up with a way to outpace Red Bull driver Sergio Perez to which Sky Sports’ commentator Martin Brundle suggested that they should hire Adrian Newey.
Sainz put in a brilliant shift with the SF23 during qualifying on Saturday. In what was his best qualifying session of the year, Sainz managed to get P2. This put him right behind Max Verstappen in the grid and he was sure about competing for the podium places at least. In fact, he was even considering going for a race win, with only Verstappen seen as the potential threat.
Unfortunately for Sainz, the SF23 was extremely slow. He was much slower than the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers, and when Sergio Perez overtook him, it really frustrated the Spaniard. That is when he asked for help from his race engineer Riccardo Adami.
Martin Brundle asks Ferrari to hire Adrian Newey
Carlos Sainz took to the team radio to ask Adami for help. He asked him to come up with any solution possible for them to overtake Perez in the race. Martin Brundle, who was commentating for Sky Sports as always, replied hilariously by offering them an unrealistic solution.
“Hire Adrian Newey,” the former F1 driver said. This comment was made in reference to the fact that Newey is arguably the most important person behind Red Bull’s dominance. Until and unless a car starts to match Red Bull’s pace, no solution can be good enough to topple Verstappen and Perez. As a result, Brundle decided to quip about Ferrari considering hiring Newey if they wanted Sainz to overtake him.
Newey, who has a $10,000,000 salary at Red Bull, however, won’t be interested in switching teams whatsoever. In the past, Ferrari did offer him a role with an even bigger salary. However, he decided to stay behind in Milton-Keynes, as he was comfortable and familiar with the surroundings.
Missed opportunity for Carlos Sainz in Spain
Sainz has been fairly consistent with scoring points this season, but hasn’t been able to stand on the podium till now. Starting P2 in his home race, the Madrid-born driver was hoping for something to go his way, but nothing materialized.
Sainz ended up being overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Sergio Perez in the race. He finished P5, which is hugely disappointing. There was more misery for his teammate Charles Leclerc, who started from the last row after a horror show in qualifying.
Leclerc couldn’t find the pace at all on Sunday. The Monegasque driver finished 11th, which means he leaves the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya without any points scored.
